Goodhue County, Minnesota - The whole text, 1878 (part 6 of 16)

The surface is broken except in the middle and southern portions. Belle Creek runs through the township, and the Great Cannon River separates it from the town of Welch. Most of the timber of this township is on sections 16 and 25, on the Cannon River bottom. The soil is good. Magnetic variation, 9° 35'.

The northern part is broken, with scattering burr and red oak. The southeastern part is covered with burr oak thickets, and groves of aspen. Cannon River bottom, from one-half to a mile in width, has gravelly soil. The middle and western has thin, sandy soil. In the southeastern the soil is good. Magnetic variation, 9° 5'.

There is timber on sections 35 and 36, and a grove on 32. It consists of sugar maple, elm, red and burr oak. The soil is generally of good quality. Magnetic variation, 8° 45'.

The surface is bluffy and uneven. The soil second rate, portions of it very sandy. Timber scattering burr and red oak. Magnetic variation 9° 21'.

The southwestern portion is broken. The Cannon River bottom, from three-fourths to a mile wide, is covered with timber, consisting of elm, soft maple, cottonwood, white ash and hackberry. The soil on the high land is good. The low land is generally marshy and underlaid with blue clay. Magnetic variation, 9° 5'.

The surface in the southern part is broken. The middle, rolling prairie, having excellent soil. The northern part of township 113 is broken, soil good; section 36, parts of 25 and 26, timbered. Town 114, which is a part of Welch, consists mostly of Prairie Island, bordering on the Mississippi and Vermillion rivers. It is wooded along the river bottoms. The soil is poor and sandy. Magnetic variation, 9° 35'.

Geology

There has never been a full and systematic geological survey of Goodhue county. Dr. David Dale Owen, U. S. Geologist, in his report of a geological survey of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, and incidentally of Nebraska Territory, made under instructions from the Treasury Department, published in 1852, speaks somewhat generally of the geological formations of the country bordering on the Mississippi River. He gives profile sections of the rock formations from Prairie du Chien to the Falls of Saint Anthony. The following quotation is taken from Mr. Owen's report:

" Lake Pepin is a mere expansion of the channel of the Mississippi, produced, in a great measure, by the eroding and undermining action of its waters, combined with atmospheric agencies, scooping out and carrying away the inferior soft sandstones.

" A little below the Red Wing village, near the northern extremity of Lake Pepin, is a remarkable headland, which has the appearance of a hill split down the middle. Here the Lower Magnesian Limestone forms about one hundred and fifty feet of the upper portion of the hill. The base, for one hundred and eighty feet, is chiefly sandstone."

Dr. B. F. Shumard, assistant to Dr. Owen, gives the following measurement of a section of La Grange Mountain (Barn Bluff,) made on the river-side from the water level. He says :

" At La Grange Mountain, near the head of Lake Pepin, is an interesting exposure of Lower Sandstone and Lower Magnesian Limestone. The whole height of the bluff is about three hundred and fifty feet, (accurately three hundred and thirty-five feet,) of which the Lower

Magnesian Limestone constitutes one hundred and eighty-five feet." The following is his measurement from the base of Barn Bluff upward his base line being the level of the river :

The next good section, showing the members at the junction of these two formations is about two miles below the head of Lake Pepin. At this locality, yellow and green sandstone is seen twenty-five feet above the level of the lake ; and extending up the slope are thicker beds, white and brown sandstone, supporting the Magnesian Limestone.

The entire area of Goodhue county is undoubtedly underlain by rocks, belonging to the period of the formation of earth's crust, known to geologists as the Lower Silurian. So far as observations have hitherto been made, there is no rock in place, within the limits of the county, of a more recent date. The green sandstone forming the base of Barn Bluff, and which underlies the streets of the city of Red Wing, and probably the whole county, is believed to belong to the same age as the Potsdam Sandstone, in the State of New York. This conclusion is based upon the fact of its containing the same fossils.

From Red Wing north, along the Mississippi, the rock strata dips quite rapidly to the north, so that by the time one reaches the mouth of the Vermillion River, back in the bluffs west of the Mississippi, the sandstone can no longer be seen, and the Lower Magnesian Limestone extends from the water level to the height of two hundred feet. Still ascending the river above Prairie Island, the strata takes a local rise, so that above Hastings the sandstone again emerges from beneath the water, and rises to the height of 12 or 15 feet above low water mark. It then sinks again, and at Red Rock, eight miles below Saint Paul, there are only ledges of Lower Magnesian Limestone, twelve feet thick. It soon dips under the river, and is overlaid by the White Saint Peter sandstone before arriving at Saint Paul. This white sandstone at the latter place attains a thickness of some fifty or sixty feet; and at Fort Snelling, of eighty to one hundred feet. At St. Paul, this is capped by the Trenton Limestone, which is at this place about fifteen feet thick. This Trenton Limestone is mostly used there for building purposes, and is generally quarried as the cellars are excavated.

Leaving Red Wing by the Zumbrota or Featherstone roads, the traveler soon ascends above the Potsdam Sandstone, and climbs over the Lower Magnesian Limestone. Having reached the level of the prairie, this last named formation lies below his horizon. As he again descends into the valley of Hay Creek, on section 18, township of Hay Creek, he sees an exposure of the Lower Magnesian Limestone. After winding through the valley of Hay Creek, as he ascends to the level of the prairie, towards Goodhue Center, he first sees an exposure of the Shakopee Limestone, the upper stratum of the Lower Magnesian formation. Reaching the level of the prairie, by the Featherstone road, leading to Hader, the last named stone is seen no more in that direction in the county. Before leaving the township of Featherstone, on section 29, there may be seen an exposure of the Saint Peter Sandstone. The surface material of the soil of the Potato Mound prairie was formed principally by the disintegration of the Saint Peter Sandstone. White Rock, on section 33, township of Vasa, is an outlier of that formation, which once covered all that neighborhood. When this soft porous stone is not capped by the shell Trenton Limestone, it is easily dissolved by the action of frost and rain, and its materials spread over the adjacent country.

The southern limit of the Lower Magnesian Limestone, in Goodhue county, is marked by a line extending in a northwest and southeast direction, at a distance of from five to eight miles from the Mississippi. It is the surface rock in the towns of Welch, Burnside, Red Wing, Wacoota, Florence and Central Point, and in the northern portions of Hay Creek, Featherstone, and Vasa. The Vasa prairie is above the Lower Magnesian. Belle Creek, however, as it winds its cOurse along through the township has cut itself a channel through that hard compact formation of a hundred feet in depth. At the point where the Red

Wing and Cannon Falls road crosses the stream, there is an exposure of a perpendicular escarpment along the western margin of the stream, for a half mile or more. The current of the stream has worn down and swept away the barrier on the east side to a distance of several hundred yards. At this point a grist mill is located - the water power being ample.

Ascending (he prairie towards Cannon Falls, evidence is soon exhibited of passing over a region where sandstone is the outlier. Before reaching the village of Cannon Falls, the white St. Peter Sandstone is seen in the slopes of the bluffs, on either side of the Cannon River, capped with its covering of Trenton Limestone. In this locality the Saint Peter Sandstone has been worn down by erosion, forming the valleys of the Little Cannon and the Great Cannon, above the village of Cannon Falls. The material once forming this stratum may be seen in the deep sandy road which the traveler encounters for four or five miles before reaching that place. The Saint Peter Sandstone furnishes the soil with little or no sustenance to support vegetation. The hills formed of this stone are round and mound shaped ; the stone is easily eroded, and the mounds bear a striking resemblance to the tumuli of an ancient burying place of the mound builders.

Around the village of Cannon Falls the bluffs are capped with shell limestone, the depth of which is nowhere greater than sixteen feet. The rock underlying the town is a hard calcareo-arenaceous schist, the topmost stratum of the Lower Magnesian Limestone, wholly destitute of fossil remains. The topmost layers of the shell limestone covering the bluffs surrounding the village are filled with fossils; among which may be mentioned forms of corals, orthidiform brachiepods and tentaculites.

Some two miles above the village of Cannon Falls, on the Great Cannon River, is the site of the falls which give name to both the village and the township. Some two years ago, the writer, in company with Frank Ives, Esq., and S. J. Hasler, of Red Wing, made an accurate measurement of the rock strata in the south bank of the river at this locality. The result showed the bluff to be one hundred and seventy feet high, and composed of the following strata, viz., thirty-eight feet of Lower Magnesian Limestone, counting from the level of the water of the river, one hundred and twenty feet of dark brown ferruginous Saint Peter Sandstone, and twelve feet of Shell Limestone, forming the cap of the last named rock.

or slope of some twelve feet to the foot of the sandstone escarpment, which rises perpendicularly in a bold wall sixty feet, where there is another slope extending to the base of the Shell Limestone.

The Magnesian Limestone, where the water breaks over it, the water having a descent of six feet, is a hard, compact rock, with no organic remains. The St. Peter Sandstone, at this point, owing to its exposure to the weather, and its containing a small per cent, of iron, is of a darker color than it is in the bluffs opposite the village, but is of the same structure and of the same materials - a mass of consolidated particles of globular quartz, like Castle Rock, in Dakota county, and White Rock, in Goodhue county, already referred to. On the very edge of this soft yielding escarpment of sandstone, nearly seventy feet from its base huge pine trees (Pinus Strobus) are growing, and the wall as square-cut as when the river receded to its present channel.

On Prairie Creek, in the township of Stanton, some four miles southwest of the falls of the Great Cannon, on section 32, there is an exposure of the Saint Peter Sandstone. It rises some seventy to eighty feet above the bed of the creek. It is in a grove of timber, and its color and structure are the same as that found at the falls of the Gannon. Both the valleys of Prairie Creek and the Little Cannon have been formed by the removal of the St. Peter Sandstone by erosion.

In the township of Belle Creek, on section 20, but a little above the bed of the creek, near the residence of the Rev. S. P. Chandler, a cellar was excavated in the St. Peter Sandstone. The Shell, or Trenton Limestone, caps it on both sides of the valley. Some remarkably large specimens of orthoceratites have been found in a quarry of Trenton Limestone at this locality.

At Hader this is the surface rock in the beds of the small streams. In fact, it is believed that it forms the rock underlying the soil and drift of the whole western, interior and southern portions of the county as far east as Zumbrota.

Four miles south of the village of Cannon Falls, at the old Freeborn farm, on section 6, in the township of Leon, the Shell Limestone, in place beside the road, exhibits the same organic remains as those found in the bluffs west of the village. The strata here dips to the south about two degrees, and conceals the sandstone long before reaching the head of the stream. The Trenton Limestone affords good building material, as well as supplying lime to the inhabitants in many localities in the county.

vicinity are very rich in fossil organic remains. The strata lie in nearly a horizonal position. Eighteen feet below the surface the highest stratum is found - a hard, ash-colored limestone. In this stratum is found several species of orthis, a species of terebratula, an undetermined cystideon, two species of bryozoon corals, two radiate corals, and two species of cephalopods of the genera cystoceras and cryptoceras. There is also found fucoidal impressions of two varieties, the only vegetables that were known to exist in that age. In the top of the bed is found an individual criniod of the family of Cystidids, Callocystites Jewetti, with a section of the stem attached.

Immediately under the upper shell bed there is found a bed of bluishgreen clay twenty inches thick, highly calcareous, and in many places calcareo-sihceous, closely resembling green sand. It is believed this would afford a profitable top-dressing for light soils. Under this clay bed is another layer of lime, and another of clay some six feet thick.

The second bed of clay reposes upon the blue limestone, the thickness of which cannot be seen. It is the lowest number of the shell beds here exposed, and is the bed rock of the river Zumbro. It is a stratum full of the remains of brachiopods, cephalopods, corals and crustaceans that inhabited the sea at the close of the Lower Silurian Period. The color of this rock is dark grayish blue, and has undoubtedly taken this appearance from the organic matter of the animals that found their last resting place on the bottom of the ocean while the stratum was in process of formation. At this period the sea must have literally swarmed with animal life, as most of the stratum is but a complete mass of the exuvias of crustaceans, molluscs, and radiates, cemented together by the calcareous mud that was deposited upon them.

The cephalopods, the orthoceratite and lituite evidently had their feeding ground in this section of Goodhue county when its surface was covered by the waters of a shallow ocean, and when surfeited with food, rising to the surface to sport in the warm, genial rays of the sun. The cephalopods were believed to be floaters, and probably spent much of the time on the surface, as does the nautilus of the modern seas.

In the township of Wanamingo, below the village, near the mills, two quarries have been opened on the north bank of the Zumbro. A section may be also seen just below the mill-dam. It shows twelve or fifteen feet of ash-colored semi-crystalline shell limestone, resting conformably upon the blue bed which extends below the bed of the river. This blue bed is of the same material as that at Kenyon. The upper bed contains the remains of countless numbers of orthoceratites of all sizes, from one foot to ten feet in length. The quarry above the dam is the most prolific place in these remains yet discovered in the county. This particular spot must have been a favorite resort for the huge monsters of the ancient sea. It seems as if this locality may have been a shallow bay, or arm of the ocean, where these lords of the ancient world became hemmed in, at the time of the subsidence of the waters, and left to perish in the locality where their tombs are now brought to the light of day by the picks and drills of the quarrymen.

From this place eastward towards Zumbrota the strata rises, so that the same stratum found at Wanamingo mills in the bed of the river, may be seen at the quarry on section 15, in the township of Minneola, seventy-five feet above the bed of the river. Fine specimens of orthoceratites have been taken from this quarry.

The Shakopee Limestone

This is the upper stratum of the Lower Magnesian Limestone, and its first out-crop is seen as one descends the north branch of the Zumbro, at the village of Zumbrota. It forms the abutment and approach to the bridge, on the south bank of the river at that place. It takes its name from the village of Shakopee, on the Minnesota River, where its lithological character has been examined and described by Prof. N. H. Winchell, in his survey of that locality. In the valley of the Zumbro, below the village of Zumbrota, the Trenton Limestone and St. Peter Sandstone, seem to have been removed by erosion. The last vestige of the St. Peter Sandstone, in this direction, may be seen near the north bank of the river, just west of the village, in a conical-shaped mound, some hundred feet in height. The Shakopee Limestone, so far as examined in Goodhue county, contains very few fossils. Its bedding is much less regular than the lower strata of the Magnesian series of rocks. It is usually filled by cherty, concretionary masses, which, on the exposure of the bluffs to the rains and frosts, become detached and fall into the bottom of the valley, where they lie long after the nonsiliceous portions of the rock have dissolved and disappeared. Such cherty lumps are often a foot, or even two or three feet, in diameter. They are roughened by cavities opening on the surface; by dissolution of the calcareous parts, and by natural openings and pores they acquired in the act of formation. These are the portions of the formation in which fossils are found. This same formation extends through Roscoe and Pine Island, into Dodge and Olmsted counties. It is overlaid in those towns by the Saint Peter Sandstone and Trenton Limestone.

The Shakopee Limestone shows itself along the bluffs skirting the Zumbro, all the way to Mazeppa, and also in the bluffs in .the township of Belvidere, till nearing the bluffs of the Mississippi, the lower strata of the Lower Magnesian become the surface rock.

In the township of Florence, on section 21, J. F. Tostevin has opened a quarry in the Magnesian Limestone. The stone is of superior quality, and is entirely free from the siliceous, cherty materials which characterize the stone in most of the other quarries in this formation, near the Mississippi. The stone is susceptible of being easily sawn into suitable shapes for water-tables, window sills and caps, mile-stones, flag-stones, etc. A mill has been erected at Frontenac station, on the St. P., M. and 0. Railroad, where large quantities of this stone are sawed by steam, and shipped to various localities for building purposes. It is a very durable stone, and bears exposure to the frosts admirably.

G. A. Carlson, Esq., of Red Wing, has worked quarries in both Barn and Sorin Bluffs in the Magnesian Limestone for several years. The stone is of a light buff color, of a close, compact texture, capable of sustaining great pressure without crushing, and will stand exposure to the weather almost equal to granite. The stone for building the Episcopal Church in Red Wing, the stone for the piers of the iron railroad bridge at Hastings, and the stone for the arch bridge across the east channel of the Mississippi, at Minneapolis, were taken from Mr. Carlson's quarries. Messrs. Seeback and Danielson have a quarry near by of the same material and quality. The stone for the foundation and lower stories of the Red Wing, Diamond and La Grange grist mills was taken from these quarries. Robert Berglund owns a quarry further south, in Sorin Bluff, of the same quality of stone, from which the material for the new Catholic Church at Red Wing, was taken. The stone from the last named quarry is of a darker color than that from the quarries of Carlson, Seeback and Danielson.

The supply of stone in these quarries is almost inexhaustible, and hundreds of tons are taken out annually for cellar and foundation walls, sewers, sidewalks, and for burning into quicklime. Particular layers of the Magnesian Limestone produce the best quality of mortar for masonry. Mr. Carlson has two perpetual kilns in which he burns 18,000 barrels of lime annually. Messrs. Seeback and Danielson manufacture nearly as much more. Goodhue county, in nearly every portion of it, is abundantly supplied with the most durable stone for building purposes. Lime is burnt in many localities in the county. Mr. William M. Philleo owns land in section 1, in the township of Featherstone, from which he obtains a superior article of clay, of which he manufac- tures large quantities of the various articles of pottery ware, vases, statues, terra cotta window caps, cornices and other ornamental work. Many of the finest residences and business blocks of buildings in Red Wing, Minneapolis and Saint Paul, have been adorned by terra-cotta, furnished from the kiln of Mr. Philleo.

The Red Wing Stone Ware Manufacturing Company have established a pottery in the city, where they carry on an extensive business in the manufacture of all kinds of stone ware and fire brick. The clay is procured from section 10, in the township of Goodhue. The fire brick made from this clay is said to be fully equal to the best fire brick from Ohio.

In several localities in the city of Red Wing there are outcrops of a white, siliceous, quartzose sandstone, belonging to the Lower Magnesian series. This formation so nearly resembles the Saint Peter Sandstone, as to be mistaken by many intelligent people as belonging to the same stratum. But at Red Wing it occupies a position at least two hundred feet below the geographical horizon of the Saint Peter Sandstone. It is believed to occupy the same position in the geological formation of Minnesota as the Jordan stratum of the Minnesota River valley. It is formed of globular grains of white quartz, so loosely cemented together that it easily crumbles in the fingers when rubbed. It is in some places locally stained with iron from surface water, when it presents a reddish, or rusty color, and is apt to be harder. In such cases it has a shell or thin coating of harder rock, about half an inch in thickness, on the weathered surface. On penetrating into the quarry beyond the influence of the weather, the grains are loosely cemented, and even crumbling; and is nearly as white as loaf sugar. One of the best exposures for examining this sandstone is at Twin Bluffs, in the city of Red Wing. Great quantities of it have been shipped from this locality to Rock Island, Illinois, to be used in the manufacture of glass. It is said to be superior to the sand used in the best Pittsburgh glass, or to that used in the manufacture of the celebrated American plate-glass, at New Albany, Indiana. The supply of this glass material is inexhaustible in Goodhue county.

Drift

The northern drift covers the surface of nearly the entire county. Banks of clay regularly laminated, and in some localities interspersed with gravel and small boulders, occur in many places. Sand-banks, in the stratification of which the ripple-marks are to be plainly seen, are of frequent occurrence in the vicinity of the rivers and streams. Boul- ders composed of a great variety of materials, but usually of granitic, syenitic, quartzose or porphyritic character, and from the size of an ordinary orange to that of a moderate-sized dwelling-house, may be seen strewn over the prairies of the southern and western townships of the count}7. The writer recollects attempting to ascertain the size of a boulder that may be seen beside the road between Belle Creek post office and Hader, on section 29 of that township, by pacing round it. It was 42 steps in circumference, ten feet high above the ground, and twenty feet, or more, thick. This immense stone is of gray granite, and must have been transported to its present resting-place by the force of ice, either in the shape of a floating iceberg or moving glacier.

The limited space in this work to which the writer is restricted, will preclude his going further into detail in the geology of Goodhue county.

For the benefit of the scientific and technical reader, a list of the more common fossils found in the different formations of the county, are here appended :

Gephalopods. - Cryptoceras Undatum, Cyrtoceras Annulatum, found at Kenyon ; Trocholites Ammonius, at Cannon Falls and Kenyon ; Maclurea Magnus, at Wanamingo and Kenyon ; Endoceras Proteiforme, at Wanamingo.

Brachiopods. - Orthis Costalis Otestudinaria, Strophmena Alfeernata, Orthis Biloba, Terebratula (undetermined;) Strophmena Plaunumbona, Orthis Striatula, Atrypa Reticularis, at Kenyon and Cannon Falls.

Indian Names

said to have been a fine specimen of the perfectly developed man. He was tall, well proportioned, straight as an arrow and as lithe and active as a cat. He was a good friend to the white people, and a promoter of civilization among his own people.

Hham-necha: Hill, water and wood, the name given to Barn Bluif and vicinity, which was a favorite camping place with the Indians, because of the abundance of wood and water within easy reach, and the elevated situation afforded for camping places.

The Mounds Of The Upfer Mississippi

These earth works have been the subject of much speculation. Many and different theories have been advanced concerning them. Some suppose them to have been the burial places of noted persons. Some that ihey are the altars upon which an ancient people once offered their sacrifices. Another theory is, that thev were built for the purposes of defensive wrar. I presume that each of these suppositions may be true in respect to certain classes of ancient earth works found on this continent. I have seen some that were evidently built for fortifications. Sepulchral mounds have been discovered in Ohio, and in some of the states bordering on the Mississippi. And there are those which bear evidence of having been once used for religious purposes. The last are most numerous in Mexico and South America.

But in regard to the mounds so common to the Upper Mississippi and its vicinity, I believe that neither of the above theories are true. I refer to the conical hillocks found generally in clusters, and rows of ten, twenty, and even fifty or sixty in some places, within the compass of as many rods. These are generally about twenty feet in diameter at the base, and rise to six or eight feet in the center; all of them having about the same size and shape.

It perhaps seems very strange to some that the Indians who lately left this country, did not pretend to be able to give any account of the origin of these mounds. But when we consider that the different tribes were almost constantly at war with each other, and that whole tribes were frequently driven from their territory, or perished by pestilence and famine, that circumstance will not appear so wonderful."

proves that they were not thrown up by human hands. My opinion is that they simply mark the places where human dwellings once stood. I have known of several being entirely removed and no appearance of any human remains found in any of them. They are largely made up of vegetable mould mixed with sand. In most of them ashes have been discovered on a level with the surrounding ground. In one case a bone, apparently from the leg of a deer, was found.

Those who have observed the place where a house once stood in a civilized country, the ground not having been disturbed since its fall, will remember that there is a depression in the ground, showing where the cellar was. But around this cellar hole is a ridge a few feet higher than the land adjacent. The material of the building of wood is all decayed, perhaps, and the cellar is more than two-thirds filled with earth. Whence all this accumulation of earth? It is evidently the result of time and natural causes. When an old dwelling falls it becomes a ruinous heap, from which springs up a thick growth of tall, rank weeds. Among this luxuriant growth the floating sands and dry leaves of autumn are lodged from year to year by the driving winds. After a score of years or more the weeds will have run out, and their place become occupied by grass or shrubs, and the accumulated process is done. We have only to apply this work of decay to houses once occupied by a savage people, who never build cellars, and we have a solution of the problem, Whence came these mounds ?

Early Beginnings Milliner, Etc., Etc

THE SWISS MISSION - DENTON AND GAVAN - SUSPENSION OF THE MISSION - REOCCUPATION BY THE AMERICAN BOARD HANCOCK AND AITON CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY - INDIAN TREATY - SPEECH OF WACOOTA - PIONEERS OF 1852 - EXPERIENCE OF JOHN DAY IN CABIN BUILDING - BEAR HUNTING BY CANOE - SUCCESS OF THE CHASE - HEROISM OF MRS. DAY - THE FIRST MILLINER, ETC., ETC.

The honor of planting the standard of civilization and the influence of the Cross in what is now Goodhue county, properly and of right belongs to Rev. Messrs. Denton and Gavan, Swiss missionaries, who came out to the new world under the patronage of the Evangelical Society of Lausanne, Switzerland. The mission over which they presided was first commenced at Mount Trempealeau, a few miles below Winona, on the Wisconsin side of the river. In 1838 the mission was removed to Red Wing, where Messrs. Gavan and Denton continued to labor among the native people until Mr. Denton's health failed in 1846, when the work was given up to the American Board.

Denton and Gavan were accompanied by their wives, and it is safe to assume that if other white men had previously visited Red Wing's village, their wives were the first white women to disturb the shadows cast by the towering bluffs, in the midst of which the mission was established.

In 1848, the American Board of Missions appointed Revs. Joseph W. Hancock and John Aiton, of Vermont, to the charge of the work commenced by Revs. Denton and Gavan. Mr. Aiton came on during the same year, but finding it quite lonely, he and his wife spent a part of the winter of 1848-49 at Kaposia, fifty miles above the mission, where Dr. T. S. Williamson, another missionary, was living with his wife.

The two log mission houses erected by Denton and Gavan remained undisturbed, and Mr. Aiton found them in a fair state of preservation, but it would be strange, indeed, if the Indians, in the two years the mission was suspended, had not partially fallen back into their old habits and wandered away from the beautiful precepts taught them by the pioneer missionaries from Lausanne, Switzerland.

Mr. Hancock did not arrive until June 13, 1849. At that time, the only signs of human presence between the foot, of Lake Pepin and Mendota, on the west bank of the Mississippi, were at Wells' trading place (twelve miles below Red Wing,) and at Red Wing. How long Wells had been located there we have not been able to learn ; long enough, however, to gain the confidence of the Indians, and to marry one of their women - a half-breed, the daughter of Duncan Graham, an old-time trader.

James Wells was an uneducated man, comparatively speaking, and of peculiarly eccentric character and habits. He was a native of New Jersey, and finding his way out West, became a trader among the Indians, in which pursuit he was still engaged when the Territory of Minnesota was organized. Writing of that period in Minnesota's history, the condition of settlements, etc., in referring to the Lake Pepin district and Mr. Wells' trading place, Mr. Neill remarks: "The two unfinished buildings of stone, on the beautiful bank opposite the renowned Maiden Rock, and the surrounding skin lodges of his wife's relatives and friends, presented a rude but picturesque scene." Wells was elected a member of the first Territorial Legislature, at which time (the fall of 1849,) he gave his age at forty-nine years. He had lived so long among the Indians, and had so assimilated to their habits and customs, that he grew restless and uneasy under the encroachments of white settlements, and the consequent destruction of the Indian trade, and in 1854 he sold his buildings to Mr. Everet Westervelt, and removed to Faribault. He was killed by the Indians in 1863.

At Red Wing there was an Indian village of about three hundred? and two white families - the family of Rev. John Aiton, who came in 1848, and the family of John Bush, the Indian farmer, employed at government expense. Mr. Aiton and family moved away in the summer of 1850, and Bush went away with the Indians in 1853.

Indian wigwams and four log cabins made up the village. Two of the cabins were occupied by half-breed Indians. The other two were occupied for mission purposes. One of the mission houses stood in what is now Bush street, directly in front of the ground now occupied by the Hickman House. The other one stood near by, one corner of it extending out into what is now the street. The wigwams were built of poles and bark, and stood along on either side of the ravine (called 'Jordan" by the settlers of 1852-3,) between what is now Main street, and the river. Their occupants were divided into two bands, and were represented by two head men or chiefs. Those on the east side of M Jordan " were presided over by Wacoota, The Shooter, and those on the west side by Fmaza-washta.

A field of about sixty acres was under Indian cultivation. The lower end of the field commenced near the spring, at the corner of Bush and Fourth streets, extended westward and included a part of the ground now enclosed in the court house square. The field was occupied by the Indians in common. Each family had a certain division or section, which was marked by sticks planted in the ground. The enclosure was made of stakes driven into the ground at certain distances, and poles tied along them with strips of bark. Only one tier of poles were used. There was no occasion for a "hog tight" fence, for there were no hogs to guard against. There was nothing to disturb the " crops " but Indian ponies, and one pole was enough to turn them.

Such was the condition of the "county seat" of Goodhue county twenty-nine years ago. The white population was represented by seven adults, James Wells, at Lake Pepin ; Rev. James Aiton and wife, Rev. Joseph W. Hancock and wife, and John Bush (the Indian farmer) and wife. Mrs. Bush was, in fact, a half-breed, who had been educated at Marquette, and partially raised in a white family at that place, by whom she had been learned to household duties. Mr. Hancock says she was a fat, rather good-natured woman, extravagant and fond of dress. When her husband would receive his payment from the government, or money

In I860 Mr. Geo. W. Bullard, under the protection of an Indian trader's license, settled at the head of Lake Pepin, in what is now Wacoota township, and made the first permanent improvement in that part of the country. A man named Abner W. Post came with Bullard and built his house. No other settlers came to Wacoota until 1852, when quite a wave of immigration set in.

A little later, in 1850, a man named Snow came to Red Wing, and opened a trading-house under like authority, on the site subsequently occupied by the Metropolitan Hotel. In 1851 a man named Calvin Potter became associated with Snow as a business partner. Soon after the partnership commenced, Snow died of cholera in St. Paul, and Potter continued the business until the Indians were removed, in 1853.

July 18, 1851, a treaty was partially concluded with the Indians for the purchase of all their lands east from the Sioux River and Lac Traverse to the Mississippi, except a reservation of one hundred miles long and twenty miles wide, on the head-waters of the Minnesota River, the purchase including about 21,000,000 acres. The treaty was acted upon by the authorities at Washington during the winter of 1851-2, but as some changes were made from the draft prepared and signed by the treaty commissioners and the Indians, it became necessary to call another convocation of the parties in interest in order to secure their consent to the change. This convocation was held at Fort Snelling in the fall of 1852. The proposed changes created a good deal of dissatisfaction among the Indians, but means were devised to quiet the dissatisfaction, and secure their consent to the proposed amendments.

These changes bring forcibly to mind and render very pertinent in this connection a speech made by Chief Wacoota, before the treaty council at Mendota, on Tuesday, the 29th day of August, 1859. When the draft of the treaty was prepared and ready for the signatures of the contracting parties, Wacoota said :

"Fathers, your counsel and advice is very good to Indians, but there are a great many different minds and different opinions, and it appears almost impossible to get an agreement, though we have all been consulting so many days.

" Fathers, you have come with the words of our Great Father, and have put them in this paper; but the Indians are afraid it may be changed hereafter. I say this in good feeling. Perhaps you think many of these things will be altered at Washington yourselves ! You have been asked a great many questions, and have answered ' yes' to them.

If all prove as you say, it will be very good indeed. But when we were at Washington, we were told many things, which when we came back here, and attempted to carry out, we found it could not be done. At the end of three or four years, the Indians found out very different from what they had been told - and all were ashamed.

"I hope, when the people sign this treaty, you will take and deliver it to the President as it is. I want you to write, first, that I wish the country for our home to be reserved north of where I now live. I was not brought up in a prairie country, but among woods ; and I would like to go to a tract of land called Pine Island, which is a good place for Indians. I want you to write this in the treaty. I mention to you my wishes in this respect, but if you do not think it can be complied with, and is not right and just, I will say no more about it."

In April, 1852, before intelligence of the ratification of the treaty had been received in Minnesota, John Day came over from Diamond Bluff, Wisconsin, and selected a claim in the southeast quarter of what was subsequently established (under government survey) as section 25, town 113, range 15. . About the time he selected this claim, he moved over from Wisconsin, and occupied one of the mission houses, and commenced to improve his claim by the erection of a cabin ; but the Indians were jealous of their rights, and no sooner was the cabin built than the Indians tore it down. It was rebuilt, and again razed to the ground. In addition to this trouble, the Indian children began to annoy Day's descendants, and fearing that the annoyance would lead to difficulty with the parents of the little Indians, Day soon moved back to Wisconsin, and stopped with E. C. Stevens, at Trenton, but continued to watch his claim. He would come down in his canoe, do a day's work, and paddle back at nightfall. As soon as he was fairly out of sight of his cabin the Indians would tear it down; and so it continued until the cabin had been built and torn down a half dozen times.

Among the Indian occupants at Red Wing, there was a French halfbreed, named Benjamin Young, who anticipated the treaty, and selected a large tract of land around Barn Bluff. Some time after Day selected his claim, a dispute arose between him and Young in regard to the line dividing their respective claims - the half-breed claiming a part of the land selected by Day. The controversy was finally settled by compromise, without detriment to either party ; but during the pendency of the dispute, the validity of the half-breed's title was raised, because of his neglect to enter upon such improvements as would give evidence of his intention to become a bona fide occupant of the land. The discussion of this question so discouraged Young, that he subsequently relinquished his claim to Dr. Sweeney, a part of the consideration being a yoke of cattle. Young remained in the country for some length of time afterwards, but at last moved away. He was heard of two years ago in St. Paul, where he was seeking to organize an expedition to the Black Hills.

While Day was living at Trenton a little incident occurred that gave Day great prestige with his Indian neighbors on the Minnesota side of the great river. While seated at breakfast one morning, Mrs. Day called the attention of her husband to a large black object, which at first they thought to be a black hog, but which, upon closer inspection, proved to be a bear. Day had loaned his rifle to Mr. Stevens, and was not in reach, but another gun, loaded with slugs, happened to be at hand, and seizing it, Day started on the chase. He fired at the bear, but the slugs fell short of the mark. The bear took to the water and made for the Minnesota shore, leaving Mr. Day standing disappointedly watching his movements. While thus engaged, a splashing of the water below him attracted his attention, and turning his eyes in that direction, he saw his wife coming up with a small skiff. As soon as she discovered that her husband had missed his aim, and that the bear had taken to the water, with a woman's forethought, she caught up a chopping axe, and hurrying to the skiff unmoored it, and started to the aid of her husband, determined that the prize should not escape. As soon as the skiff was close enough to the shore Mr. Day jumped in and followed in bruin's wake, and succeeded in heading him off and turning him back towards the Wisconsin shore. When nearly opposite his home Mr. Day managed to get close enough to use the axe. A short but desperate struggle ensued, resulting in a victory for Day. The bear was towed to the shore, and was found to weigh 400 pounds. The Indians considered this an unparalleled act of bravery, and averred that their boldest, best hunters would not have dared to attack a bear in that manner. They declared that Day was waukon - supernatural, and from that day till the last of them had quit the country, he had their most unbounded admiration for his daring and prowess. He gave the claws and tusks of the animal to some of the Indians, which they fashioned into ornaments, esteeming them very highly, and it is presumable they are still preserved in the families of those to whom they were originally presented. In their admiration and praise for Mr. Day, they forgot that most of the credit for the success of the adventure belonged to Mrs. Day. If it had not been for her forethought in taking the canoe and axe to her husband when he missed his mark, he would have stood there until the bear had escaped across the river and become lost in the country beyond. Of such stuff were Minnesota's pioneer women made.

In May, 1852, soon after Day had moved back to the Wisconsin side, and while he was there "watching and waiting" for news of the ratifi. tion of the treaty, which would enable him to come back and occupy his claim, Dr. W. W. Sweeney, then living in St. Paul, became interested with other parties in the development of Red Wing's village as a town site. Calvin Potter had succeeded Snow as Indian trader, and thought it would be a good site for a town. A third party was desirable, and William Freeborn, an old settler of St. Paul, who enjoyed a large and popular acquaintance, was selected as the most available and desirable associate. Freeborn could not remove to the new El Dorado at once, and Dr. Sweeney volunteered to come in his place. This objection removed, and the preliminary plans of the enterprise mapped out, Messrs. Freeborn and Sweeney came down to Red Wing, when Dr. Sweeney purchased the claim right of the French half-breed, Benjamin Young, already mentioned, and now included in what is known as "Sweeney's Addition to Red Wing." A purchase was also made of a two-story log building, weather-boarded with antediluvian lumber, that stood on the river bank in the rear of the First National bank block. The doctor then returned to St. Paul and arranged his business so as to come on and occupy his possessions. On his return to Red Wing he was accompanied by James McGinnis. They made their headquarters in the two-story building already designated, where they kept " bachelors hall."

These arrangements were made in anticipation of the ratification of the treaty, and while the country was still in the absolute possession and control of the Indians. But as a physician or "medicine man," Dr. Sweeney's presence was really desirable to the red occupants, and he met with no objections to his settlement among them, although, strictly speaking, he had no rights on the west side of the Mississippi River that the Indians or any other people were legally bound to respect. His presence was only tolerated by Indian sufferance and their desire for a healing medium in their midst. His only guaranty of protection was such as the mission could give, or Indian respect for his profession command.

In 1844 Dr. Sweeney and his brother Charles, now a popular lawyer of Fredonia, Wilson county, Kansas, went from Fulton county, Illinois, to Galena, and commenced the publication of a newspaper called the Sentinel, which they continued until some time in 1846, when they sold the office to other parties, who change the name of the paper to the Jefiersonian. After the sale the doctor returned to Fulton county, and remained there until 1850, when he removed to St. Paul, and engaged in the practice of medicine until his removal to Red Wing in 1852.

In June, 1852, news was brought that the treaty had been ratified. There was nothing now to interfere with or hinder white occupancy of the country. Day moved back and set to work to rebuild his cabin. His family came over with him. The first night or two after their arrival Mrs. Day and the children slept under an inverted batteau as a protection against the dew and damp of the night; and for a week afterwards, until the cabin was completed sufficiently for occupancy, they slept in a cave hollowed out of the bank for a root cellar. These points establish the fact that the household of John Day was the first white family that came to Goodhue with the purpose of making it a permanent home, a purpose they have resolutely maintained to the present.

That Mrs. Day is a woman of remarkable nerve and forethought has already been shown in the part she took in her husband's capture of a bear. But there is still another incident in which her heroism stood out in bold relief. On one occasion, while they were living on the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi, her husband had been down to some of the lower towns, and came up on the steamboat "Nominee.*' The river was so rough the boat would not attempt to make landing on the Wisconsin side, but put Mr. Day ashore on the Minnesota side, opposite his Trenton home. In a lull of the elements he managed to call over to his wife and tell her if the wind and waves went down to send a canoe over for him. The children became alarmed lest their father would be compelled to remain out in the storm over night. Added to their grief and agony was the feelings of the wife and mother, and quieting the little ones as best she could, she went to the river's bank, unmoored a canoe, and regardless of the waves that were dashing here and there almost as high as a man's head, she bravely pushed away from the shore and started to relieve her husband from the perils of a pitiless storm-night on the opposite shore, yet within sight of their home. She crossed in safety, although Mr. Day says there were times when she was lost to his sight behind the rolling waves. "Ah, such times," said Mr. Day, while relating the incident to the writer, "my heart was in my mouth, and I was the worst ' pale-faced' man in the Indian bailiwick. I expected every time she went down in the trough of the waves that the canoe would swamp, and that she would be buried beneath them. I have been pretty badly scared sometimes - have been in some pretty scary places both before and since, but I tell you I never had such feelings creep all over me as I did that time, and I never want to experience such feelings again. In making the return trip, I made my wife lie down in the canoe, while

I, trembling like a leaf, as its parent stem is shaken by the wind, managed to guide the canoe to the other shore, where the children were watching and waiting our coming with tearful eyes."

E. C. Stevens came over from Wisconsin with Day, and during the summer selected a claim south of the original town plat that is now included in T. J. Smith's addition to Red Wing.

David Pucket, Jack Saunders and Benjamin Hill, came in during the summer. Charles Parks, now of Cannon Falls, came in November; Warren Hunt and his family, including his wife's sister, Miss Cary, came about the same time. Miss Cary was the reigning pale-faced belle of the country, " whose right there was none to dispute," as she was the only unmarried white woman of marriageable age in the district. She subsequently became Mrs. Calvin Potter, their marriage being the first ceremony of the kind solemnized among the white settlers. Potter and his wife were recently living at Kellogg, where Mr. Potter was engaged in merchandizing.

In December, the two Middaugb/s - H. B. and Joseph - came as carpenters to prepare the material for a hotel the town proprietors had planned to build. After their work was completed they remained as permanent settlers.

The pioneers of the Norwegian and Swedish population, came at nearly the same time. Mathias Peterson was the first son of Norway to claim a home in the territory subsequently organized as Goodhue county. He afterwards settled in Zumbrota township, where he became a successful and prosperous farmer. To Nels Nelson belongs the honor of pioneering the way from Sweden for the hundreds of his countrymen and countrywomen that help make up the population, and whose enterprise, industry and economy, have added so largely to the wealth of the county. These men were the last arrivals of 1852, commencing their residence here in December of that year.

The names thus far mentioned, represented the entire white population at the close of the year 1852. All told, the number did not exceed forty persons.

In 1853 the tide of immigration grew stronger. Among the additions to the Red Wing colony were William Freeborn and family, H. L. Bevans and family, William Lamber and family, James Akers and family, T. J. Smith and family, and W. D. Chilson, that are distinctly remembered. H. L. Bevans opened a small store, which was the first, Potter's Indian trading house excepted, and Akers was the first justice of the peace elected in the Red Wing community.

and parallel lines, reached what is now the southeast corner of Pine Island township in June, 1853, no wagon had ever penetrated to that part of the county. The teams accompanying the surveyors were the first to disturb the grass and herbage. Mr. S. D. Hart, a resident of Goodhue county since 1854, was a member of the government surveying party, and he relates that when they reached Cannon Falls, in the fall of 1853, they found a small, uncovered shanty - or rather the pole structure of what was intended for a shanty - that had been erected on the west side of the falls, to " mark a claim." That was the only evidence of civilization they found until they reached a point within five miles of Red Wing, where they found the body of a shanty on Spring Creek.

This year, 1853, settlements began to extend back into the county, and the first settlers back of the immediate vicinity of Red Wing came in August that year. They were a party of Swedes, who came directly from their native country, except a young man by the name of Hans Mattson, who had been a couple of years in the United States, and was the only one amongst them who could speak the English language. He was sent out to Minnesota in behalf of. a number of his countrymen in Moline, Illinois, to find a location for a settlement, and with him came two others, Charles Roos and A. G. Kempe. After prospecting for claims in the towns of Featherstone and Burnside, they selected the town of Vasa for their settlements, and removed there early in September, 1853. The first claims were taken for H. Mattson and S. J. Willard, his brother-in-law, where Vasa church now stands, and for Ch. Roos and Mr. Kempe in the valley where White Rock post-office is now located; but the first habitation was in a tent camp in the timber on Belle Creek, adjoining the place now called Jentland, where the three pioneers, Mattson, Roos and Kempe, remained some time, cutting hay and preparing for winter.

In November the little colony, which had then built their first log house in the White Rock Valley, across the line in Belle Creek town, was increased by the arrival of S. J. Willard. He and Mattson, however, did not remain in the settlement the first winter, but went down to the Mississippi bottoms, near the mouth of Cannon River, and started a wood camp, in which they and some Norwegian young men, Albert Halvar and Christian, chopped steamboat wood all winter. In March Mattson and Willard, with Mrs. Willard and a little babe, Zelme, moved on to their claims in section 15, town of Vasa. That spring the families left in Illinois began to arrive.

There were some other additions to the population during the year, but at the close of 1853 the entire white population of the county did not exceed seventy persons. On Christmas Day of that year the entire Red Wing community partook of dinner at the residence of William Freeborn, the first and only time the entire white population of Red Wing dined together at any one house.

The First Milliner

Another woman who was a prominent representative of the female pioneers to Goodhue county, is worthy of especial mention, as showing what a woman can do.

Miss Sarah McDonald came to Red Wing from the State of New York, in the year 1854. She had previously acquired some knowledge of millinery, and had faith enough in her own ability to commence business on her own account. She hired a room about 10 x 16 feet square in the upper part of a story-and-half dwelling house on Bush street, which had just been completed, in which she opened a small assortment of millinery goods - the first stock of the kind opened in Red Wing. She boarded herself, worked diligently, and for a while had the custom of all the fair part of the population, and no competition. Economical and industrious, she was soon enabled to secure a more eligible situation and an enlarged assortment of goods. Availing herself of the advantages offered by the pre-emption laws, she obtained a title to 160 acres of government land in the township of Belle Creek. She purchased a lot on Main street, on which she erected a building in 1859, of sufficient dimensions for a workshop, salesroom and dwelling, where her establishment became the resort of all the fashionables, and more than ever the means of increasing her income. But alas for human hopes. A fire broke out in June, 1865. The first hotel, called the Te-pe ton ka, with several adjoining buildings, were destroyed, and Miss McDonald's establishment was pulled down to prevent the further progress of the fire-fiend. She was advised by some of her friends to bring suit against the city for damages, etc., which she did, and gained the suit in the lower court. The city authorities took an appeal to the Supreme Court, where the rulings of the court below were reversed. Beaten, but not conquered, her independence asserted itself in new determinations and undertakings. She soon opened another shop and recommenced business anew. Perseverance, industry, and rigid economy, soon brought their reward and won for her the victory. She now owns the lot and brick building on Main street, occupied by Wilkinson & Hodgman ; another lot on Main street, west of Broadway, and thirty- live acres of land near Zumbrota. She sold her pre-empted 160 acres of land a few years ago for $2,500. In 1870 she married L. W. Peck, Esq., a well-to-do farmer in Cherry Grove, with whom she is still living, a happy and contented matron.

Humorous Incidents

Missionary and pioneer life is not always shaded and clouded, notwithstanding the representatives of these classes are frequently shut out for months at a time from all communication with the inside, civilized world. There are sunny places and humorous incidents with them, just as there are among the people of densely populated districts and more advanced communities. Generally speaking, the pioneers are genial, humorous fellows, and as frolicsome as a sunbeam. They sport with the winds, and laugh at storms and the freaks of the elements. And missionaries, to whatever people or wilds, are not much unlike other people, notwithstanding the sacredness of their calling. They are happy in the work they have chosen to do, and having thrown aside all other cares and responsibilities, they bend to the duties of their philanthropic undertakings with hearts ready for any fate. Deprivation, exposure to personal danger and want, may often encompass them round about, but with a faith that no opposition or persecution can weaken, they accommodate themselves to conditions and circumstances, and are as ready to

If the experiences, humorous and otherwise, of the thousands of men and women who have taken upon themselves the duties of missionary servants, and gone out among the uncivilized tribes of the earth to point to the better way, were collected into printed volumes, a record of interest would be preserved that would be universally read. Some of its pages would cause tears of pity, while others would excite uncontrollable merriment and risibility.

One of the missionaries to the Dakota Indians, Rev. Joseph W. Hancock, is still a resident of Goodhue county and a citizen of Red Wing, where he has maintained a continuous home since June 13, 1849. Although a teacher to benighted, darkened souls, he is not, and never was, of that class of teachers and preachers that thought it sinful to smile or "crack a joke." to go a ducking or get a "ducking;" but was as ready to join the members of his charge in innocent sports as the most sportive of their kind. And although his missionary labors ended a quarter of a century ago, and he is now far past the meridian of life, he is still young at heart, and well preserved intellectually and physically, and his memory well stored with a rich collection of incidents and happenings in the early days of his residence among the dusky sons and daughters he came to teach. Among these happenings of the long ago, he relates the following :

When he came to Red Wing he was as ignorant of the management of a canoe or other small water craft, as the Indians were of the letters of the alphabet or their uses when his predecessors, Denton and Gavan, first came among them in 1838. On one occasion an old Indian and his son were going out duck hunting, and Mr. Hancock asked for permission to accompany them, as anxious, no doubt, to witness the Indian modus operandi of taking the feathered, web-footed game, as he was to secure a share of the trophy of the hunt for his own table ; for it is reasonable to suppose that Mr. Hancock, missionary though he was, was as fond of a nicely-prepared roast of duck as the Sandwich Islanders used to be of a roast from the arm or thigh of a fat missionary. Mr. Hancock's request to accompany the hunt was granted, but he says he " came near falling out of the canoe before he got in," from which hull it might be supposed he was an Irishman, but we do not venture the opinion that the supposition is correct. When all was ready, the canoe was shoved off, and headed up stream for the duck haunt. Mr. Hancock had a long stick in his hand, and coming to a place where he observed the water was not deep, he put the stick over the side of the boat, touched bottom, and gave a strong push. The bottom was muddy and the stick stuck. In attempting to recover the stick by pulling it out, it pulled him in about as quick as a flash of lightning. The next thing he knew the canoe tipped over, and tipped him into three feet of water, head foremost, and he went a ducking. When he regained his feet, the Indians were picking up their guns and powder horns from the bottom of the river. The elder Iudian seemed to blame Mr. Hancock for the mishap and administered to him a pretty severe rebuke for his ignorance, using the following Dakota words :

The white missionary may be a very good man and know all about the road to the land of the Great Spirit, and how to point the Indians there, but he cannot point a canoe to a duck pond. His words may stick like the stick he stuck in the mud that pulled the canoe over; but if he don't know more about what he preaches than he does about paddling a canoe, he'd better quit and go back to the home of white men. May be white men make good preachers, but bad canoe men. Get in the canoe now and keep still. Indians know how to keep them right, and never turn them over like the white missionary.

Mr. Hancock obeyed the injunctions of the old Indian, got into the canoe again, but was mindful to " keep still " the balance of the trip, and returned home a ivetter, as well as wiser man as regarded canoe management. He afterwards learned to " paddle his own canoe," as he was determined the Indians should not always have occasion to taunt him with his ignorance of skill in that kind of water-craft.

An account of another canoe ride, in which Mr. Hancock participated, is worthy of place in this connection. This time the ride was taken on land.

In the summer of 1852, John Bush, the Indian farmer, accompanied by his wife and Mr. and Mrs. Hancock, concluded to make a visit to the head of Lake Pepin, to "call " on Mr. George W. Bullard and family. The distance was six miles by land. There was no available wheeled vehicle - no carriage, or wagon, or horses that could be used, so a large canoe was brought into requisition. A yoke of cattle were hitched to the canoe by a log-chain, and the visitors started. The wild grass was tall and thick, and the canoe glided along where the ground was level like a sleigh over a good snow-path. But the ground was not always level. It was level only occasionally, and the oxen, not used to that kind of a vehicle, stepped rather quickly over the rough places, occasioning frequent turn overs and tip-outs. It is the opinion of Mr. Hancock that they turned over as much as fifty times in going and returning. They landed in all sorts of positions - on their sides, backs, faces, singly, in heaps, and on top of each other - presenting the most ludicrous appearances as they sought to right themselves. "No bodily harm was experienced, however," says Mr. Hancock, " but the amount of fun and hearty laughter we enjoyed that day exceeded anything of the kind I ever knew, before or since. It was enough to make a stoic laugh or cure a dyspeptic. I have never failed to laugh when the circumstance is called to mind, and I don't know but what it will be one of the last things I think of as my bark of life is shoved away from the shore of time."

Retrospective Reminiscences Of The First Settlement At Red Wing

At a meeting of the Old Settlers Association* of Goodhue county, held at Red Wing, on Tuesday, the 15th day of June, A. D.1869, W. W. Sweeney, M. D., delivered an address on the early scenes and incidents attending the first settlement at Red Wing, that was so full of interest as to be worthy of preservation in these pages. A gentleman of education, large observation and diversified experience, and one of the first settlers, no one was better prepared to speak accurately of the trials and hardships, realities and romance of pioneer life. When this address was delivered, only seventeen years had been added to the record of time since he "pitched his tent" in the shadows of Barn Bluff. These seventeen years encompassed the fullness of his physical and mental vigor, and hence the subject of his address was still fresh in his memory. He said :

"In the spring of 1852, Calvin Potter, with whom I had previously been acquainted, called at my office in St. Paul, and in the course of our conversation informed me that he had bought out Mr. Snow, the licensed Indian trader at Red Wing; and in view of a treaty then in process of consummation, he thought that point a good location for a town-site; also, that he would like to interest some one with him in a claim he had there. Mr. William Freeborn being one of the old residents of St. Paul, and having a large acquaintance, Mr. Potter thought he would be a desirable man. From my opinion of the country, acquired in various conversations with an old French voyager, and also from an Englishman by birth, but in language and habits a compound of English, French and Indian, who had been in the country for thirty years, I was more than anxious to take part in the enterprise, and brought about a speedy meeting between Mr. Potter and Mr. Freeborn.

" In our council Mr. Freeborn demurred at first, urging his inability to remove to the new El Dorado immediately. I proposed to remove that objection by coming myself, to which he acceded. The result was that we three took the return boat, and landed in Red Wing in the early part of May. While there I purchased a claim-right from a half-breed, named Benjamin Young, of that part of the city known as " Sweeney's Addition," as also that old weather-beaten, two-story log-house, well known to old settlers - sided up with antediluvian lumber, that stood in the rear of where Mr. Sheldon's warehouse now is. This done, I returned to St. Paul, put my business in a proper shape, and came back to Ked Wing with James McGinnis, who concluded to try his fortune in this then unexplored country. We made our headquarters in the venerable tenement before mentioned, kept our own house - or, as some graphically describe it, ' kept bach.' This was in the latter part of May or beginning June.

'-As it was not deemed advisable to go into any farming or building operations until the treaty was ratified, we had plenty of idle time on our hands, and the grand difficulty was to know how to dispose of it. The families then here were the Rev. James N. Hancock, of the Presbyterian mission and John Bush, Indian farmer. John Day was not far off, however. The old 'Excelsior' never made a trip up from below that John did not board her, to hear ' about the treaty.' There were several transient persons here, but their whereabouts is not now known. The only actual residents of the county previous to my coming, besides those above mentioned, were George Bullard (now deceased) and family at Wacoota ; James Wells, since killed by the Indians in the southwestern portion of the State, who then had a trading post at what is now the village of Frontenac; and a Mr. Gould and family, who resided near the mouth of Wells Creek. This comprised the white population of the county.

Hunting The Source Op Hay Creek

" Of the country back of us, even for four miles, I could learn nothing. Mr. Knauer, the engineer of the old military road up the river, said he had rode out to the source of Hay Creek, and that it orginated in a fine1 tamarack marsh. It occurred to McGinnis and myself that a good tamarack swamp, in a prairie country, would be a fine thing to possess, and being like the caged starling, anxious to 'get out,' we 'just went' for Hay Creek, and to our intense disgust, didn't find any tamarack. In an after conversation with Mr. Knauer, I am persuaded that not following the creek valley all the way, he mistook the poplar grove, known in early times as 'Albert's grove,' for the swamp aforesaid.

"After our little disappointment about the source of Hay Creek, our trips were mainly confined to the river side of the county, between the divide of the waters of the Zumbro and Mississippi - even Belle Creek was not known - its locality and course, however, was traced for us by Hapah, the old chief's son-in-law. It was not deemed advisable to go far from the river, as many of the Indians were decidedly hostile to ceding their lands, and the Zumbro country was the common hunting ground for several bands of the M'dewakantonwan Dakotahs, besides being in the route of traveling Indians from the upper Minnesota to Wabasha, the residence of the acknowledged head chief of the seven bands.

"Having become acquainted with the principal men among the Indians, I thought it safe to bring my family from St. Paul, which I did in July, 1852, as did also Mr. McGinnis. I have a very lively recollection of getting our household stock from the landing to our residence. A winding, rugged path up the bank was the course by which we conveyed it, and 'Mc' aud I transformed ourselves into pack-mules, until stoves, bureaus, provisions and various etceteras of two households were placed under shelter, and we were at home. Within the next twenty-four hours ninety-nine hundredths of the Indian population had called in through curiosity, and their various comments would, doubtless, have been edifying, had we been able to understand them. Friendly relations were established, however, and we never could complain of lack of company as long as they remained in the village. I must also say in justice to the memory of these original settlers and occupants of the soil, that I was never more kindly treated by any people, nor did I ever enjoy myself better. To be sure they were importunate beggars, as a community, and the women as a rule were chronic thieves. In fact, they were kleptomaniacs, i. e., they would not help their stealing proclivities. But making all allowances for these little peculiarities of their manners and morals, which were a part of their natures, and they were not a bad people to live among. By a little liberality when their begging seemed justifiable, and by firmly refusing when necessary, the beggars were disposed of and kept in good humor. And by watchfulness and the aid of bolts and bars their thieving propensities were held in check and rendered measurably harmless.

"The treaty being ratified by the Senate of the U. S., with some alterations from the original as framed by the Dakotahs and the commissioners, it became necessary to convene the different bands interested therein to get their consent. Notice was accordingly given to them to meet at Fort Snelling early in the fall, in consequence of which a perfect exodus of the aborigines took place, and nothing more was seen of them here until late in November, after the close of navigation. When they did return, a more squalid, wretched looking set I never saw. Bitter were the complaints against the government officials.

Their annuities were spent in waiting at the fort, the best of the hunting season had passed, their canoes were frozen in the ice away from home, and would be mainly lost. I remember well when the first installment that came home, three families, pitched their tents in the evening near the mission house. They were worn out, cold and hungry. The children were emaciated and sick, from want and exposure. They were supplied by the whites with food until the men could obtain game for their sustenance. In the morning two of the men went out hunting, and as I came home in the evening, unsuccessful from a similar expedition on Hay Creek, I struck their trail, and in a short time overtook them, a little below where Cogel's flouring mill now is, each of them slowly toiling through the deep snow, under the burthen of a deer. The men seemed exhausted, and requested me to stop at their teepees and tell the women where they were - that they had got tado - and wanted them to come to their assistance. I hurried home to communicate this joyful intelligei ce to the inmates of those three lodges. Upon reaching them I told one of the women the good news. She immediately shouted forth a peculiar cry, which was echoed by all in the tent, down to a three year old boy dressed in purus natur alibis. This brought out the inhabitants of the other lodges. Upon being told the cause of the commotion, the same shout went up from all present. Women and children acted as if demented. The women rushed about for straps, knives and blankets, and the children jumped up and down for joy. After giving them the proper directions where to go, three women started on a dog trot, and were soon lost to view ; but sometime after dark I called at the lodges and found them busily engaged in masticating huge mouthfulls of venison. In three days those little half-starved, copper colored specimens of the genus homo had acquired a very perceptible rotundity, and were as sleek and as frisky as a litter of young pups. The cry or shout mentioned, I have heard frequently, and is made on the occasion of the intelligence of a successful hunt: not always the same, different intonations indicating the kind of game killed, as for deer, bear, elk, &c.

Additions To The Population

"The additions to our population besides those mentioned, were John Day and family, E. G. Stevens, David Pucket, Jack Sanders and Ben. Hill, in the summer, and Charles Parks, in November, 1852.

" The proprietors of the town site had procured lumber late in the fall for the erection of a hotel early in the spring, and it was necessary to engage carpenters to prepare such of the material in the winter as could be done within the shop. H. B. and Joseph Middaugh were obtained, and became residents of the town, in December, 1852. About this time, also, the first of our Scandinavian population arrived here : Mathias Peterson, a farmer, now in Zumbrota township, a Norwegian by birth ; and in a short time he brought Nels Nelson, a Swede, who for a long time lived with me. These two men were the pioneers of that nationality in Goodhue county, which now exceeds eight thousand souls. Both these men formerly resided in St. Paul. In the spring following, Albert, a Norwegian, an acquaintance of Mr. Peterson, settled here and made a claim in what is now Featherstone township, at Poplar Grove, or Albert's Grove, now embraced in the limits of the farm owned by Mr. Friend.

Shut In By Winter

"The winter of 1852-3 was passed very pleasantly by our little isolated community.* The natives soon left on their winter's hunt after their return from the treaty ratification at the fort, and we saw but little of them until some time in January ; in fact, we saw nobody but our own residents. Communication between us and the civilized world was only resumed when the post had rendered traveling safe on the Mississippi River. The mail was carried from Prairie du Chien through Wisconsin, crossing the Chippewa near the Menominee River, thence through a wooded wilderness to the very source of Rush River, at Baker's station, thence to Stillwater and St. Paul. A trip from Prairie du Chien in the winter, required nerve, endurance, and a willingness to perform any amount of manual labor that the emergency of the case might require. We here got our mail from St. Paul - when we had a chance to send for it. When the ice was safe, trains arrived frequently from below, principally laden with pork and flour. Our isolation was from about the middle of November to some time in January. Such supplies as ran short were obtained of Mr. Potter, whose establishment contained those articles more especially demanded by the Indian trade ; from Geo. W. Bullard, at Wacoota, whose situation at the head of the lake rendered it necessary for him to keep a more extensive assortment of goods to supply the wants of the lumbering interests ; or if these stores were deficient in the articles, then St. Paul was the last resort for the winter.

County History

"As it is impossible to relate all that I wish to say in chronological order, I may as well give a few of the incidents connected with our county history, even though out of their proper era.

"On the Wisconsin side of the river, previous to the settlement here in 1852, the land was ceded, surveyed and opened to settlement. At Diamond Bluff lived John Day, Allen Wilson, Jack Payne, and George Day. At the mouth of the Trimbelle, " old Hawley" and Jake Meade. At Thing's Landing (now Trenton) lived Wilson Thing, E. C. Stevens and Dexter, all more or less engaged in getting out wood for the use of steamboats. Mr. John Day and E. C. Stevens are residents of our county ; Mr. Thing and Wilson are deceased. The whereabouts of Payne, George Day, Dexter and Hawley is unknown. Meade still resides near his old location.

" ' Old Hawley ' was rather a hard case. By his sale of whisky our community was frequently disturbed by the whooping and yelling of drunken Indians, upon which occasions about all the population of natives not engaged in the spree would flee to the houses of the whites for protection, and there remain until the Wakan"1 gave out, and the legitimate results of a 'high old time' tad overtaken the carousers. Nothing is known of Hawley's fate, but from a knowledge of his character, I would infer that he is at some ' side station ' or 'switch off' in that 'undiscovered country from whence no traveler returns.'

"In justice to truth and history, I must say something of Wilson Thing, a very eccentric man, a strict vegetarian, a man of strong prejudices, but moral and upright - a good neighbor and an honest man. He was the only justice of the peace for many miles around, and consequently had a little legal business to perform. Previous to my coming here, (as related by an old settler,) a fair widow of this place had entered into a marriage contract with a gentleman of St. Paul, and the time was fixed for a consummation of the happy event. When the time arrived, and the parties to the contract were present, a grand difficulty occurred. Rev. Mr. Hancock, the only one authorized to solemnize marriages, was absent. The bridegroom was impatient and the bride annoyed. Friends suggested a canoe ride to Trenton and the services of ' Squire Thing' as the only solution of the evils complained of. Of course, under the circumstances, both bride and bridegroom eagerly acceded to the proposition, and in a short time the bridal party was under way for the residence of the justice. They found this worthy representative of the law, as enacted and promulgated by the great state of Wisconsin, busily engaged in the rather feminine occupation of washing a two months' accumulation of dirty shirts (he being at that time a bachelor,) and he was somewhat embarrassed at the sudden irruption into his sanctum. The bride, however, was plucky, and to relieve the justice, and give him time to make himself presentable and con over the marriage ceremony, she proposed that herself and mother would finish the laundry operations, while he got ready for his part of the proceedings, which was accepted, and in due time both the shirt washing and the marriage ceremony were completed to the satisfaction of all concerned.

Digging Potatoes In Wisconsin

" As winter approached, it became necessary for us to look about for a supply of vegetables for winter use, as there were none to be had on this side of the river. Upon inquiry I found that Mr. Thing had planted four or five acres of potatoes, besides some beets and cabbages, which latter we were able to purchase. The potatoes, however, were not to be obtained by a regular business transaction of cash down. In the first place, they were ' planted on the sod;' that is, two rounds were plowed the potatoes dropped in the last furrow, and covered by the sod of the next round, and so on. The 'Squire's field was in the prairie between Trenton and the bluff's. The season was not favorable for rotting the sod, and the tubers were hard to excavate. He wanted help, which was hard to get. We wanted potatoes, and money wouldn't buy them. Consequently, it was 'root, hog, or die,' with us, and we went to rooting. A hard day's work unearthed ten bushels to the man, for which one bushel was given as wages. I have to this day a very acute appreciation of the pleasant occupation I was then engaged in. Just fancy my getting up at 4 o'clock in the morning, breaking my fast as soon as possible, getting into a canoe, with hoe, basket and sack, and paddling up to Trenton, thence to the field. Now commences the dissection of those gutta percha sods with a plantation hoe. A little experience in another line of business enabled me to get the hang of the thing. In getting honey out of a hollow tree, the best way is to cut two carfs into the cavity, then split off the block of timber between. The same rule held good in the present instance, but I must say I never saw sod so tough, potatoes so hard to get at, and so small when I got them. But as an offset, I have never eaten potatoes of equal excellence, and I was prouder of the ten bushels I thus acquired, than of the biggest buck I ever arrested in his wild career through the woods, or the largest trout I ever landed from the clear rushing waters of his native brook. Just think of it ! Ten bushels all my own. No gift ; not begged, but earned. One hundred bushels torn from the rugged earth, ninety given as a peace offering, but ten ray own, for use and dissipation. I think I didn't dissipate. On ray back I nightly bore my wages down to my gondola, and sailed away for home. But I have dwelt too long on this subject. Time has mellowed down all of pain that was associated with the circumstance, and the recollection is now pleasurable and full of interest to me in my musings and speculations of then, now of the future.

'' Leaving this portion of my subject, I must now refer to one full of interest to me, but probably not as acceptable to a majority of my audience. Among the first items of information I obtained from the Indians was, that the small spring brooks contained -an abundance of trout, and the equally gratifying intelligence that they never used them as an article of food; in fact, their religious notions 'tabooed' their use. From the name they gave the speckled beauties, I would infer they considered them too bad to eat. Hogal-wichasta-sni (literally, wicked-man-fish) is not suggestive of high appreciation among the Indian community. They really believed some malign influence resided in the fish, and that to eat them would be to invite disease and the anger of the gods. This feeling was very prevalent among them, and Wacoota (the chief) being invited to take dinner with me, at which meal I informed him there would be a dish of trout, he consented to be present provided we would lock the doors, eat dinner up stairs, hang a curtain before the window and say nothing about what he had eaten. This was done, and the old ' Shooter' made a very hearty meal, as Indians are apt to do, but I thought during the trout course, that he acted as though the morsels were hard to bolt, like a boy swallowing his first oyster, and that qualms of conscience interfered with deglutition. He ate frequently with me afterwards, but I cannot say that trout ever appeared to be a favorite dish with him.

"All the streams within the limits of our county abounded with trout, with the exception of Prairie Creek, the Pine Island branch of the Zumbro, and the Little Cannon. The latter stream has since been stocked, and now affords very fair sport, the run of trout being large.

V'I only fished in four of these streams the first two years of my residence here, to-wit, Trout brook, the little stream emptying into Hay Creek near Hawley's Mill, Spring Creek and Bullard's Creek. The first of these, however, being adjacent to town, was where I got my supply for home use. An hour or two in the evening would net me eight or ten pounds of the fish.

at a ford or ripple, it was no uncommon tiling to see dozens of trout rushing and tumbling over each other in their haste to reach their hiding places in deep water. On Hay Creek I have thus frightened off a shallow ripple more than fifty pounds of the fish at one time, and though I always carry an ample supply of fishing tackle with me, I never wet a line in that stream until 1854. This I consider the greatest instance of self-denial and resistance of temptation on record. I could cite many cases where better men, probably, have signally failed, and where the restraining influence should have been much stronger. The reason why I did not gratify my natural instincts was the opposing one, and true sportsman maxim, never to kill what you cannot make use of; and, also, I am too great a lover of the gentle art to hasten the extinction, through a mere wantonness, of a creature that has so largely contributed to my pleasure and happiness.

" With your permission I will relate one of these instances, although properly not occurring in the early settling of the county, premising my recital with the explanation that the cause of temptation was a large, beautifully colored specimen of our gamest of all game fish - the trout.

'- A party from below, accredited to our fishing club as being ' all right,' arrived here and requested information as to where they could enjoy a couple of weeks' good sporting during the hot month of July. The very paradise of fishing grounds was selected for them, and the next day their camp was pitched on a beautiful spot in Rush River, in the State of Wisconsin. A few rods of open prairie stretched down to the river from the camp, and the small, orchard-like trees surrounding, afforded an inviting shade. In front loomed up steep bluffs, covered with tall timber; back of the camp the ground rose in a succession of plateaus until the general level of the country was attained. Taking it all in all, it was one of the loveliest situations for the purposes of a sportsman's camp, that I ever beheld. An invitation to call and' break bread' with them was accepted, and in a few days John Webster, Billy B., Sam Stevens, and myself, were on the ' old battle ground,' with rod, reel, line, and various other appliances deemed necessary on such occasions. We found our friends enjoying themselves admirably. They had established friendly relations with the neighboring settlers, and could not be better situated. One of the party was a minister of the gospel of the Methodist denomination, a Pennsylvanian by birth, brought up among the mountains of Sinnemahoning, as pure and unsophisticated, as regards evil, as the clear mountain brooks of his old native home. From his surroundings in childhood he could not have been less than a keen sportsman and be a man !

"The country in the locality of this camp had been sparsely inhabited for a number of years. Young men with young families had settled there, and for a time had not felt the necessity of education or religious instruction. As their families grew up, however, several had expressed a determination to leave on account of their families growing up ignorant in these particulars, and devoid of a knowledge of the amenities and conventionalities of social life. A slight impetus of immigration had raised their drooping spirits, and, by an effort, they had just completed a school house, which, on the Sabbath, they used as a church when a wandering minister traveled that way. This being the situation, word was given out that our reverend sportsman, brother Shaffer, would, with divine permission, give them a discourse on the ensuing Sabbath at such hour as might suit their convenience. Nature had been lavish of gifts to our friend of herculean proportions. He was deep chested, strong limbed, and with a voice as clear as the clarion's notes, combined with the resonance of distant artillery, yet he could modulate it to the murmur of a mountain rill under the controllings of genial influences. His invariable practice, after the evening meal, as the shades of night drew on, was to retire a short distance from the camp, and, I presume, offer up his devotions ; and then broke forth an evening hymn which caused all camp avocations to be suspended. The very birds ceased their songs ; the gambolings of the little denizens of the forest and the busy hum of insect life seemed hushed. Naught of earth was heard but the voice of praise and the gentle murmur of the passing stream, in fitting unison. We were not the only auditors. The powerful voice of the singer had penetrated far into the surrounding woods. Hearers had learned when to enjoy the pleasure, and would silently approach the camp without their presence being known, that they might more clearly appreciate the beauty of the song. A religious feeling was aroused, and the hearts of the community were in sympathy with brother Shaffer. On Sunday morning all the inmates of the camp were on the way to the place of meeting, and it appeared that the entire population was in motion. By the roads, footpaths, and through the woods they came, until the house was full, and groups standing on the outside. The speaker gave them a discourse suited to their wants. The grand old woods and the crystal waters came in as blessings which should be thankfully acknowledged in their devotions to God, together with the sustenance and pleasure derived therefrom. The remarks were appreciated, and I will venture that seed was sown there that time will not smother, nor the germinal principal decay, without bringing forth much fruit.